Cacti are perhaps the best-known desert plants. They have thick stems that store water, and sparse leaves that minimize evaporation. Some cacti, such as the saguaro, can grow to be over 20 feet tall.

An evergreen desert shrub common in the Middle East excretes salt crystals onto its leaves that may help the plant absorb moisture from the air. “Not only does the plant use some water ...

The leaves under attack produce nicotine ... And along the dry eastern coast of Madagascar... desert plants have created the junglelike spiny forest. ♪ Desert plants have even reached ...

This plant features long, spiny canes that produce clusters of bright red flowers in the spring. Ocotillo is highly adapted ...

Here are a few of their strategies. Leaf adaptations: Plants transpire water through pores in their leaves called stomata. Desert plants try to avoid having large leaves, since plants can lose a ...

Published in Communications Earth & Environment, a study reveals that about 8 million years ago, a region now desert along ...

“This paper provides a new level of detailed understanding of how some desert plants can both excrete salt and use it to take up water from the air into leaves,” says plant physiologist and ...

The Southwest is no stranger to sweltering conditions, and desert plants and trees are drought ... the sun had bleached the tissue of its shiny leaves. Down another street, a pair of mulberry ...

Within each sword-shaped leaf lie the softest ... on tall stalks above the plants proved one of their most reliable food supplies as well. The Cahuilla of our desert utilized yucca fiber for ...